


flagship of my rue

by peachgloss



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Crying, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Hufflepuff Han Jisung, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Slytherin Lee Minho, Truth or Dare, Underage Drinking, jisung babie agenda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23314108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachgloss/pseuds/peachgloss
Summary: It’s no secret that fifth-year Han Jisung and sixth-year Lee Minho absolutely despise each other, but if you were to ask Jisung, he wouldn’t be able to tell you why. It’s one of those facts of life that seems so obvious he’s never thought about it—the sky is blue, water is wet, and Jisung hates Minho.or, Jisung and Minho fall in love over ancient runes and firewhiskey.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Comments: 24
Kudos: 503
Collections: MINSUNG BINGO: Round One





	flagship of my rue

**Author's Note:**

> for the [minsung bingo](https://twitter.com/minsungbingo) filling the prompts harry potter au, enemies/rivals to lovers, truth or dare, and mutual pining!

It’s no secret that fifth-year Han Jisung and sixth-year Lee Minho absolutely despise each other, but if you were to ask Jisung, he wouldn’t be able to tell you why. It’s one of those facts of life that seems so obvious he’s never thought about it—the sky is blue, water is wet, and Jisung hates Minho.

As such, when Professor Park assigns them detention together for disrupting class with their fighting (Jisung maintains that Minho started it), they share a horrified glance, in sync for once.

“But Professor Park—” Jisung blurts, before shrinking in his seat at the quelling glance she sends him.

“I expect to see you both in my office at six sharp tonight,” she snaps. “Now, back to Ancient Runes.”

Jisung spends the rest of the lecture dutifully taking notes and trying to ignore the sharp glare boring into the back of his head.

“I can’t believe Professor Park,” he complains to Felix as they hurry out of the classroom and towards the North Tower for Divination. “This detention is going to be an absolute disaster.”

Felix, bless his heart, is unrelentingly optimistic. “You never know,” he says hopefully, “maybe this will help you two get to know each better. Minho hyung isn’t that bad once you get to know him.”

Jisung scoffs, rolling his eyes. “The problem is that we know each other  _ too _ well, Lixie. If tonight doesn’t end in us physically fighting, I’d be surprised.”

“I still don’t understand why you two hate each other so much,” Felix frowns thoughtfully. “You were fine until third year.”

“I can’t stand his smug face,” Jisung spits, fists unconsciously balling up. “As soon as he hit puberty, his personality became literally insufferable.”

Felix’s eyebrows shoot up. “It sounds more like you just have a very angry crush on him,” he says over his shoulder as they climb the ladder into the Divination classroom. “That was basically just an aggressive way of saying he’s super cute.”

Jisung’s whole face must be red, since he can feel the heat rising in his cheeks. “That’s—that’s definitely not it,” he sputters, well aware of how unconvincing his denial is. “Why would I like someone as full of himself as Lee Minho, anyway?”

“The more you say, the more I think you like him,” Felix drawls, settling into his seat. “Minho hyung isn’t vain about his looks at all, which you’d definitely know if you ever spoke to him without yelling. He’s actually really sweet.”

“I have!” Jisung protests, glaring ineffectively at his friend. “There was that time—”

Embarrassingly, he draws a blank.

“My point’s proven,” Felix says smugly just as Professor Myoui sweeps into the room elegantly and starts class.

Today they’re practicing reading tea leaves, but Jisung is so preoccupied trying to convince himself he doesn’t have a crush on Lee Minho that he can’t focus on the preparation at all.

“Thinking about Minho hyung?” Felix teases when he almost drops his teacup for the third time.

“Only about how much I hate him,” Jisung complains. He drains the cup in his hands to avoid having to respond to Felix’s eyebrow waggle.

“What do you see?” he asks, thrusting the empty cup in his friend’s direction.

Felix takes it carefully, peers at the bottom for only a second, then announces, “It’s definitely some sort of bird—maybe a swan?”

Jisung pages through his textbook until he finds the meaning of a swan. “Good luck and a happy love life—you’re kidding.”

“Even the tea wants to tell you something,” Felix sing-songs, nudging Jisung in the side playfully. “Maybe something  _ interesting _ will happen in detention.”

“That depends on your definition of interesting,” Jisung says, gently pushing Felix’s cup towards his mouth to ward off any further teasing.

Jisung shows up in Professor Park’s office at six on the dot, and is unsurprised to find Minho already there and waiting for him—he’s noticed that the other boy has a habit of showing up ten to fifteen minutes early to everything.

“Professor Park was just here,” Minho says tersely. “She said that we’ll be preparing runes for tomorrow’s beginning class to practice activating.” He shoves a pile of parchment and a quill in Jisung’s direction, then turns back to his own work.

Jisung bites back the first three sharp comments that want to escape him and sits down sullenly next to Minho. He can’t help but glance at the other boy’s runes and is disappointed to find that they’re basically perfect.

All except for—”The angle here is a little off,” he says smugly, tapping Minho’s parchment lightly.

“That’s just my handwriting,” Minho snaps, jerking it away from Jisung’s hands. “Mind your own business.”

“This is my business,” Jisung points out in what he thinks is a reasonable tone. “If you write these runes wrong, Professor Park will make us both stay late to redo them.”

“I’ve been writing them like this all year, and Professor Park hasn’t said anything,” Minho says, glaring at Jisung. “Why don’t you start copying? We’ll have to stay later if you don’t finish in time, asshole.”

Jisung wants to retort angrily, but remembers that Professor Park can come back into her room at any second. Instead, he pulls the scroll Minho had given him towards him and sets to work. It’s dull, mindless work, copying runes, and before long he’s so bored he’s even willing to try to make polite conversation with the sixth-year.

“Don’t you think the third years should be farther along in runes than this?” he wonders, setting his parchment to the side and stretching his back out. “It seems a little late for them to still need to practice activating runes, shouldn’t they be making their own?”

Minho shrugs, and Jisung can see the line of his shoulders tense up. “From what Professor Park has told me, it seems like they’re having trouble getting the hang of it. I don’t know, though—she doesn’t really like complaining about her students.”

That sounds like Professor Park to Jisung. While she’s known for being strict and demanding, she’s also notoriously fair and always willing to empathize with her students.

“She seems worried about it, if you ask me,” Jisung comments. “Do you think there’s anything we could do to help the third years out so she’s not as stressed?”

Minho looks thoughtful, the creases in his brow that have been present since Jisung entered the room smoothing out. “We can ask her about it after detention,” he suggests, and Jisung nods in agreement.

He still can’t believe Professor Park gave him and Minho detention—they’re definitely her best students. It’s just his luck that the class he performs the best in has to be the one with the teacher who doesn’t play favorites.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jisung says, and Minho offers him a small smile before returning his attention to the runes he’s copying.

Jisung doesn’t really know why his heart speeds up and his face flushes slightly, but he chalks it up to being unused to interacting civilly with Minho. It’s still several minutes before he can completely focus back on his own parchment.

The rest of detention passes in silence, though this one is much more comfortable than Jisung had expected. He might be able to learn to tolerate Lee Minho after all.

Of course, he immediately recants that thought once he finds out that they’re both free during the third years’ Ancient Runes class.

“How about you both come and act as my teachers’ assistants?” Professor Park suggests cheerfully, oblivious to the fight she’s about to instigate. “I have no doubt that you’d be invaluable.”

Jisung and Minho share a look, agreeing to postpone their inevitable conflict until after they’re out of the sight of their collective favorite teacher.

“That sounds great!” Jisung grits out, trying not to sound too disappointed. He must succeed, because Professor Park just beams at the two of them, ruffles their hair with a hand each, and sweeps out of the room with a quick goodbye.

As soon as the door shuts behind her, Jisung lets out a long groan, closely echoed by Minho a few seconds later. “You’re not as bad as I thought, Lee, but that doesn’t mean I can put up with you for an hour and a half.”

“Same to you,” Minho says, used to the informal address by now. “We’ll have to keep it together for the third years, though, or else we’ll just cause Professor Park more stress.”

Jisung exhales heavily. “Pact to stay civil, at least for the duration of the class?”

“No promises about after,” Minho says with a half laugh. Jisung’s sure this will end swimmingly.

When he shows up to the third years’ Ancient Runes class a few days later, Jisung only expects the worst to happen—just judging based off of their past interactions, he and Minho can barely be in the same room without fighting.

Strangely, though, it actually goes pretty well. It turns out that he and Minho work well together when they’re forced to be civil, and it appears as if they’re both trying to force back the reflexive animosity that has characterized their relationship thus far.

Jisung spends the class helping out a third-year Slytherin named Jeongin who’s having trouble concentrating his magical energy, and he’s pleasantly surprised at how much progress they make in only ninety minutes.

“I think I figured it out,” Jeongin says, eyes curving into crescents. “Thank you so much!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jisung says, scratching the back of his head. He straightens up from where he’s been crouching by Jeongin’s desk and just barely catches Minho looking at him with an expression he can’t place. The only thing that Jisung can tell is that it’s not the normal animosity, but the other boy turns away before he can analyze it further.

It’s strange, seeing Minho in this type of context. He’s gentle with the students, patient when they don’t understand his explanations and encouraging when they make progress. Jisung’s not sure if he likes it or not—he gets a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach when he looks at the upperclassman smile and ruffle a third year’s hair.

In an effort to shake it off, Jisung goes to find Professor Park instead. “Professor,” he starts, hesitant to interrupt her grading. “What should we get them started on once they’ve mastered activating runes? Should I tell them to practice drawing them?”

“Maybe next class,” Professor Park suggests, putting her quill down and casting a quick  _ Tempus _ to check the time. “It’s getting a little late to start new material now. Actually, now that you mention it, I should be ending the class right about now.”

Jisung and Minho wait patiently by the side as Professor Park assigns homework and dismisses the class. She comes over to them after a few stragglers have finished asking questions, beaming.

“That was a success, I think,” she enthuses. “Would it be too much of a burden on you two to ask you to come back for the rest of the term? I don’t want to impose on your free time, but—”

“Of course not,” Jisung blurts, and he can see Minho nodding in his peripheral vision. “We’re happy to be of help in any way that we can.”

Belatedly, he realizes that he’s signed himself up for a term of that weird feeling in his gut whenever he looks at Minho, but Professor Park looks so happy he can’t bring himself to take it back. Besides, Minho isn’t really that bad, at least in a classroom setting.

“That’s great,” Professor Park says. “Would you mind coming up with a few activities for them to practice memorizing the new vocabulary I’m teaching them? I think the change of pace from my lectures would be helpful.”

Jisung and Minho share a glance before nodding their assent. “We can meet up in the library after dinner?” Minho suggests tentatively.

“Works for me—” Jisung can barely get out, before Professor Park interrupts.

“Wonderful,” she gushes. “I’ll see you next week then!”

While Jisung expects the library sessions with Minho to be incredibly awkward, he finds himself slowly warming to the sixth-year. As the term progresses, they go from meeting only in the library and Professor Park’s classroom to actually seeking each other’s company out, and it’s only when Hyunjin mentions it that Jisung realizes that they’ve actually become close friends.

“You’ve been hanging around Minho hyung a lot,” his friend comments, waggling his eyebrows. He looks like he expects Jisung to furiously deny it and reaffirm his hatred for the sixth-year.

Instead, Jisung just frowns thoughtfully. “Huh,” he mumbles to himself. “I guess I have.”

The next time he sees Minho, he drags him to the Great Lake so they can enjoy the nice weather before winter falls. “Hyung, are we friends?”

Minho looks at him like he’s crazy. “Jisung, we hang out all the time,” he says like it’s obvious. “We even eat at each other’s house tables sometimes. Of course we’re friends.”

“I’m glad,” Jisung says, dragging the sixth-year in for a hug and burying his face in his shoulder. Minho stiffens momentarily in Jisung’s arms, but then relaxes into the hug.

“Me too,” he says after a second, breath ruffling Jisung’s hair.

There’s just one problem with their burgeoning friendship. Jisung just might have developed the tiniest crush.

Felix, because he’s the worst friend in the world, won’t stop laughing once Jisung confesses this to him. “Am I allowed to say I told you so?” he wheezes, miming brushing a tear from his eye.

“Absolutely not,” Jisung hisses, poking his so-called friend’s stomach harshly. While Felix dances away from Jisung’s fingers, they don’t do much to quell his laughter.

“I don’t see why this is a problem,” Seungmin chimes in from his bed, looking up from his History of Magic textbook to stare questioningly at Jisung.

“It’s a disaster,” he moans, flopping onto his back to stare at the ceiling. “There’s no way he likes me back, we literally hated each other just a few months ago.”

“I’m pretty sure he only hated you because you were mean to him all the time for no reason,” Seungmin points out reasonably, looking like he’s already tired of Jisung’s bullshit. “And anyway, you started liking him after hating him for so long, so why couldn’t he do the same for you?”

“Because he’s  _ Minho _ , and I’m me,” Jisung explains. At Seungmin’s baffled look, he elaborates. “I mean, he’s so—so nice to everyone, and he’s humble, and he’s generous, and he’s pretty on top of it all. Meanwhile, I’m—”

“—super cute,” Hyunjin interrupts, poking his head down from the top bunk. “If you saw the way he looks at you, Jisung, you wouldn’t be talking all this shit about yourself.”

“Agreed,” Felix says emphatically, sitting down on the floor next to his friend. “All those things you said about him can also be applied to yourself, dumbass.”

Jisung rolls over onto his stomach and buries his face into the carpet. “I don’t think he likes me back,” he whines, voice muffled.

There’s a silence, during which he’s pretty sure his roommates are exchanging glances above his body. Finally, Felix breaks it.

“You should come to the party tonight,” he says, and Jisung blinks at the non sequitur.

“What party?” he asks, sitting up.

“The one to celebrate Hufflepuff’s victory over Gryffindor in the most recent match,” Hyunjin says. That explains why Jisung doesn’t know about it, at least—he has basically no interest in Quidditch.

“Why should I—” he starts.

“You’re so mopey lately,” Felix explains, pinning him with a worried stare. “If you really want to get over Minho hyung, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.”

“He’s not going to be there, right?” The last thing he needs to do is get drunk and spill all his secrets to the older boy.

“I don’t think so,” Felix hedges, glancing around nervously and looking very suspicious in general.

“You’re hopeless,” Hyunjin says, heaving an exasperated sigh and rolling off his bunk. “No, Jisung, Minho hyung won’t be there, so you can get as drunk as you want.”

Jisung flops back down in relief, missing the conspiratorial glances his friends are shooting each other over his body.

The party that night is wild to the point where Jisung is surprised that they haven’t been shut down by Professor Kim yet. It’s not just Hufflepuffs, too—surprisingly, he manages to spot Bang Chan, Ravenclaw’s pride and head boy.

“What’s he doing here?” Jisung wonders, nudging Felix in the side. He’s been sticking close to the other boy all night, since he isn’t really close with most of his housemates.

“I have no idea,” Felix says loudly so as to not be drowned out by the music. “He normally doesn’t show up to parties like these,” he adds.

“Neither do I, to be fair,” Jisung points out. He’s feeling a little warm, with a giddy feeling in the pit of his stomach—it’s possible he’s a little more drunk than he’d initially thought.

Felix turns around to put both hands on Jisung’s shoulders and look him in the eyes. “Are you having fun?” he slurs, expression openly concerned. “We can go back upstairs if you need to take a break.”

“I’m fine,” Jisung says, rolling his eyes. “I can handle a little noise and a few strangers, don’t worry about me.”

“But you’re not doing anything,” Felix drags out in what’s almost a whine. “We wanted you to have fun tonight, not mope around about hyung all night.”

“I’m not moping!” Jisung protests. He’s apparently louder than he intends, because several people around them look over in interest. “Listen,” he continues, a little quieter, “how about we go play truth or dare with those people over there?”

“That sounds great,” Felix enthuses, expression back to happy so quickly Jisung has to wonder if he’s being scammed. “Let’s go!”

The people Jisung pointed at have already started the game, but are happy to include two more participants. He recognizes a few of them—Bang Chan is there, as well as Seo Changbin from Slytherin and—

“Felix, we have to get out of here,” Jisung hisses frantically in his friend’s ear. “Look, it’s Minho hyung. I can’t be drunk around him—”

But Minho’s already seen him, and scoots around the circle that’s formed to throw an arm over Jisung’s shoulders. “Jisungie,” he gushes, voice sweeter than Jisung’s ever heard it. “I didn’t know you were coming!”

Jisung throws Felix a panicked glance, but the other boy just ignores him. “Traitor,” Jisung hisses resentfully.

“What?” Minho asks, warm breath in Jisung’s ear.

“Nothing,” Jisung stammers, half wanting to shove Minho off and half wanting to pull him in closer. “Whose turn is it, hyung?”

Minho points wordlessly at Chan, who’s in the process of daring Changbin to pretend to be him for ten minutes.

“I have a feeling this will be more of a punishment for Chan hyung,” Jisung whispers, turning to face Minho and inadvertently sinking further into his hug. He briefly panics before deciding that he’s already in too deep to extricate himself, so he might as well enjoy it.

“Agreed,” Minho says, voice suddenly deeper than usual. He clears his throat. “Anyway, now Changbin’s going to—oh.”

Changbin has just asked Felix if he has a crush on anyone in the room.

Jisung, having been subject to many a rant about the sixth-year Slytherin’s muscles, is about to intervene on behalf of his friend. Then, he remembers Felix leaving him to be hugged by Minho earlier and changes his mind.

“I’ll drink,” Felix decides, slamming down the shot of firewhiskey in his hands before anyone can protest. Jisung eyes Changbin carefully—is that a flash of disappointment he sees?

But before he can analyze Changbin’s reactions further, Felix turns to him and says, “Jisung, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Jisung says boldly, even though he knows Felix probably has something evil planned for him.

“Go play seven minutes in heaven with Minho hyung,” Felix says, grinning innocently, and Jisung chokes on his own spit. He feels Minho’s arms tense around him.

If he was sober, Jisung would drink instead of carrying out the dare, but… he really  _ does _ want to spend seven minutes in a closet with Minho, and the alcohol is making him a little braver than usual.

“If hyung is okay with that,” he says, making to get up. In his peripheral vision, he can see Felix’s eyes widen with shock, but the majority of his attention is focused on Minho.

He doesn’t say anything in response, only gets up and follows Jisung’s lead upstairs. As they ascend the staircase to Jisung’s dorm, the noise of the party fades behind them, until there’s just the sound of their breathing and their footsteps against the stairs.

“Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, hyung,” Jisung says once they’ve entered his room. He sits down on his bed and pats the side in an invitation for Minho to join him, which the other boy does.

“It’s okay,” Minho says, leaning into Jisung’s side a little. “It’s nice to get to spend time with you one-on-one again—it seems like we haven’t spoken in a while.”

Jisung winces, because yeah, that may have been his fault. After his unpleasant realization of his feelings for Minho, he’d tried to avoid him as much as possible, afraid his expressions would betray him.

“I missed you,” he slurs, turning so he can wrap his arms around Minho. “I only see you in class now, and I hate it.”

“Jisung,” Minho says, sounding strangled. When Jisung looks up at him, blinking, he shakes his head and pushes him away gently. “Why are you being so touchy all of a sudden?”

Unwillingly, Jisung’s mouth contorts into a pout. “Why are you being so mean?” he counters, and to his horror, he can feel tears welling up in his eyes. He’s never hated being an emotional drunk more.

“Please don’t cry,” Minho panics, waving his hands in the air helplessly. Of course, this just makes Jisung cry more. “Jisungie, please,” he says, slender fingers brushing delicately under Jisung’s eyes to wipe away the tears.

“I just want to hug you,” Jisung says, aware that his voice is getting dangerously close to a whine.

“Why?” Minho laughs, his voice slightly strained.

Jisung can’t take it anymore. “Hyung,” he begins, pulling back and looking Minho in the eyes, “I like you a lot.”

“You—” Minho chokes out. “Jisungie, you’re drunk, you don’t mean it,” he says, looking like he’s trying to convince himself of his own words. “You should go to sleep now, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

He makes to leave the room, but Jisung latches onto his sleeve. “Stay?”

Minho hesitates, but one look at Jisung’s big, tear-filled eyes, and he crumples like wet paper. “Okay, but only until you fall asleep.”

He sits down on the bed again, allowing Jisung to put his head in his lap. It might be the most comfortable Jisung has ever been, and he quickly drifts off as Minho softly cards his fingers through his hair.

When he wakes up, he’s not sure where he is for a second. Then, the events of last night hit him like a truck and he lets out the most humiliated groan he’s ever made.

“Shut up,” Hyunjin moans from somewhere above him. “M’ head hurts.”

“Can someone please close the blinds,” Felix complains weakly, then buries his head back underneath his pillow. “Oh god, I drank way too much.”

Seungmin just sighs exasperatedly and gets out of bed to do Felix’s bidding. “You three are absolutely hopeless.” He stops by Jisung’s bed for a second and nudges his shoulder.

Jisung reluctantly opens his eyes against his throbbing headache and blinks a few times to see Seungmin’s hand, holding a small bottle.

“Pepper-up potion,” he says in explanation, handing it to Jisung, who takes it gratefully.

Once he’s downed the potion, he feels a lot more human—enough to fully process what happened last night.

“Guys,” he whines, flopping back down into his bed, “I fucked up big-time last night.”

“You went upstairs with Minho hyung, right?”

Felix’s question is met with shocked looks from the other two, who pepper Jisung with questions.

“What happened? You two didn’t do… anything, right?”

“How come he’s not here right now?”

Jisung moans in misery. “Um. I may have told him I like him.”

“And then?” Hyunjin demands, hanging upside down from his bunk to hear Jisung’s answer. “What’d he say back?”

“He said something about me being drunk and not meaning it,” Jisung says dejectedly. “And then he let me put my head in his lap until I fell asleep.”

Felix clears his throat pointedly. “That sounds a lot like he likes you, Jisung.”

“Why didn’t he accept my confession, then,” Jisung whines. “Now I’ve ruined my friendship with him forever—I’m never drinking again.”

“While that’s not a bad resolution to make,” Seungmin chimes in, walking over to bodily pull Jisung out of bed and to the closet to get dressed, “I think if you just talked to Minho hyung while sober, your problems might be solved.”

Jisung eyes him suspiciously. “Do you know something I don’t?”

Seungmin shakes his head. “My lips are sealed.”

After Jisung gets dressed, they go downstairs. Unsurprisingly, the Hufflepuff common room is filled with students from other houses who passed out last night after drinking too much.

“Can we eat breakfast in our room today?” he begs the others, once the possibility of seeing Minho in the Great Hall has hit him.

His friends sigh, but agree reluctantly once he breaks out the puppy eyes. “You’re not going to be able to avoid him forever, you know,” Seungmin says reasonably.

“I’ll do it for as long as possible,” Jisung says firmly, and that’s the end of that.

Except it’s not—after The Incident, as his friends have become fond of calling it, he can’t stop running into Minho. First, in the library, when Jisung ducks behind a bookshelf and nearly knocks himself out in an effort to avoid the sixth-year. Then, in the Great Hall, when Minho starts walking towards him only for Jisung to practically run out of the room and eat in the kitchens instead.

The only place he can’t run away from Minho is class, but Minho is dedicated enough that he doesn’t mention anything personal while they’re teaching the third-years. Jisung almost thinks that he can ride out the rest of the year like this. Eventually, Minho seems to get the hint and stops trying to approach him, and while Jisung wants to cry once he realizes it, he tells himself it’s for the best.

“We miss you,” Felix says, after walking in on Jisung eating dinner in the kitchens with the house elves once again. “You never come to dinner, and I feel like even Seungmin, Hyunjin, and I never see you anymore.”

Jisung looks up from the treacle tart he’s been nibbling on. “I’m sorry,” he says miserably. “It’s just—I can’t take seeing Minho hyung, knowing that I ruined our relationship.”

“For the love of—you idiots,” Felix hisses in exasperation. “If you bothered to look at hyung even for a second, you’d see that he’s just as upset about this as you are. Even if he doesn’t like you back, he obviously misses your friendship, so  _ please _ go talk to him.”

“I can’t,” Jisung wails, startling the house elf sitting next to him into nearly knocking over a chair. “Sorry, Posmey,” he says apologetically.

After that encounter, Jisung tries to spend as much time with his friend group as possible, and Felix obligingly drops the matter of reconciliation with Minho. As the term drags on, Jisung even begins to wonder if he can get away with avoiding Minho for the rest of their school years.

Of course, he can’t. It all comes to a head when Professor Park pulls him to the side after class one day. “I was thinking,” she starts, and Jisung immediately gets the feeling that this won’t end well. “Maybe you and Minho could plan a bigger activity for the end of term? Since you won’t be helping anymore after break, I’d like to end things with something exciting.”

Jisung forces a grin and nods, unwilling to let his favorite professor down. “Of course,” he says. “I’ll talk to him about it tonight.”

“That sounds great,” Professor Park says, face suddenly serious. “If you two could smooth out whatever’s gone wrong between you, that would be great too—I really enjoyed my two best students becoming friends.”

Jisung flushes red down to his neck, but nods obediently. “I’ll try, Professor.”

When he goes to find Minho in the Great Hall later, the other boy looks bemused at Jisung willingly seeking him out.

“Can we talk?” Jisung asks, fidgeting with his hands.

Minho nods and leaves his friends with a promise to find them later. As they leave, Jisung can feel the icy stare of Seo Changbin boring into his back, and he shivers involuntarily.

“Professor Park wanted us to come up with a bigger activity for the end of the term, so we can say bye to the third years,” Jisung says nervously. “We could meet in the library to discuss it later?”

After they’ve agreed on a time, there’s an awkward silence during which Jisung considers bringing up The Incident and clearing the air between them. His cowardice ends up winning out, and he starts to bid Minho a quiet goodbye before—

“That’s it?”

Minho’s voice is almost angry, and Jisung slowly raises his gaze to meet the other boy’s eyes. They’re sharp, accusatory.

“We haven’t spoken in months, and you only break the silence to ask me about a project we’re doing for  _ class _ ?” Minho demands. “Look, if you didn’t mean what you said that night, we can never talk about it again, but just tell me the truth. I miss you,” he ends, voice slightly hoarse.

Jisung cracks. “Hyung,” he says, reaching out to grab Minho’s hand. He leads him out to the Great Lake, the place they’d established their friendship.

Once they’re standing on the shore, Jisung drops Minho’s hand, turns to face him, and takes a deep breath. “When I said I liked you, I meant it. I’m sorry, I know you don’t like me back, and I understand if you don’t—”

Minho buries his face in his hands and lets out a long groan, cutting Jisung off. “You avoided me for months on end over this?”

“Hyung, I’m sorry,” Jisung says, feeling a wave of guilt over this. How long had Minho tried to talk to Jisung, to smooth over what happened that night? He should have known that Minho would never judge him for developing feelings.

“You—” Minho starts, lifting his face from his hands and pinning Jisung with an incredulous stare. “Even if I didn’t like you back, you should’ve just talked to me.”

“I know,” Jisung wails, before what Minho had just said registers in his head. “Even if—”

“How is it possible for you to be so oblivious?” Minho asks rhetorically, cupping Jisung’s face in his hands and pecking him gently on the lips.

Jisung stands there for a second, feeling his heart beat its way through his cloak. “Hyung?” he croaks out.

“You’re so cute,” Minho says, drawing Jisung into his arms and burying his face in the other boy’s shoulder in a way reminiscent of their first hug all those months ago. “How could you think I wouldn’t like you back? I’ve been gone for you since I saw you teaching Yang Jeongin the first time we helped out Professor Park.”

“Oh,” Jisung whispers into Minho’s shoulder. “Oh,” he repeats more confidently, pulling back and smiles sweetly at the sixth-year.

“Kiss me again?”

_ Epilogue. _

It’s a year and some change later when Minho asks Jisung out to the Yule Ball. He does it first in private, making sure Jisung isn’t pressured into his decision, then again in public.

“Oh my god,” Jisung groans, absolutely humiliated. There are  _ dwarves wearing wings _ dancing down the Great Hall. “I’m going to kill Minho hyung.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Felix says smugly. “Very inspired.”

“Inspired by  _ Gilderoy Lockhart _ ,” Jisung hisses, “one of history’s most famous idiots.”

“You have a point there,” Felix admits as one of the dwarves steps up to Jisung, clears his throat, and begins singing the most out-of-tune song Jisung’s ever heard, asking him to go to the ball with Minho.

“Tell him that I said yes already, but now I’m reconsidering,” Jisung tells the dwarf, who shrugs and waddles with his compatriots out of the hall.

He doesn’t reconsider.

The day of the ball, Jisung’s roommates seem to have become momentarily insane. Hyunjin pokes at his face with eyeliner, and Jisung’s afraid to move lest he lose one of his eyes. Felix keeps changing his shirt, unsure of which shade of blue would match Changbin’s tie the best. 

“Seungmin, please save me,” Jisung begs his only sane roommate, who’s sprawled out on his bed reading.

“I had to suffer through the same thing,” is the unconcerned response. “You’ll survive.”

Though Jisung doubts it, survive he does, and he descends down the Hufflepuff stairwell mostly unharmed.

(Hyunjin may have gotten into his eye with the eyeliner at one point, but they’ve both agreed to never speak of that again.)

When he steps outside of the common room, he’s greeted with Minho in white dress robes, and his breath catches in his throat.

“You look really good, hyung,” is all Jisung can manage as they fall into step with one another.

“You too,” Minho says sincerely. His voice turns playful. “Who put that eyeliner on you? I need to pay them fairly for their work.”

“It was Hyunjin,” Jisung laughs. “It was so painful, though—he should be the one paying me.”

They’ve arrived at the Great Hall by now, a little late because of Hyunjin’s fussing. Minho holds a hand out in invitation for Jisung to dance, which he accepts.

Once they’re swaying together on the dance floor, Minho whispers in Jisung’s ear, “Can I tell you a secret?”

Jisung nods into Minho’s shoulder.

“When we first met, I never thought I’d ever be friends with you,” Minho confesses seriously. “I’m glad we got that detention with Professor Park that one day last year. If we hadn’t, I’d never have discovered how well we fit together.”

Jisung’s eyes are already welling up with tears, and he’s never cursed his tendency to cry easily more.

“Hyung, my eyeliner’s going to smudge,” he protests, trying for levity.

“That’s okay,” Minho says calmly. “Then I’ll just smudge mine, too, and we can match.” He lifts his hand to his face and, very deliberately, rubs his eyes.

All Jisung can do is look up into the newly panda-eyed face of his boyfriend and laugh. If you’d told him a year ago that he’d be dancing with Lee Minho at the Yule Ball, he’d have scoffed and laughed. At the time, it would have seemed absolutely unthinkable.

Now? It’s one of those facts of life that seems so obvious he’s never thought about it—the sky is blue, water is wet, and Jisung loves Minho.

**Author's Note:**

> ty for reading ♡  
> title from [love poem for an enemy, by richard katrovas](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/41119/love-poem-for-an-enemy)  
> [curious cat](https://www.curiouscat.me/elixirs)


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